Sod harvesters for cutting a strip of sod from the ground and for stacking the sod as a set of slabs on a receiving surface (typically a pallet) have existed for many years. However, prior harvesters which have included a mechanism for automatically stacking slabs of sod on a pallet have been extremely complex and costly. One problem has been that since the strip of sod is normally cut and delivered continuously from the ground, a buffer storage must be provided on the sod harvester to receive sod which continues to be delivered from the cutting knife at the same time when sod which has previously been cut is to be picked up and stacked or moved to another location. The provision of buffer storage for the sod until it can be picked up has in the past added to the size, cost and complexity of the harvester.